Curriculum

The dual Master's programme in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image provides students with the knowledge and skills they need to partake in the archiving, preservation and presentation of audio-visual media (film, video, digital media) within different types of organisations.

Programme structure

The dual Master’s programme comprises 90 ECTS credits:

30 credits’ worth of courses on the history, theory and practice of the preservation and presentation of moving images and sound

The programme introduces students to a wide range of concepts, principles and techniques for archiving and (re)presentation. In their core courses, students are encouraged to critically reflect on how such concepts, principles and techniques are used in a wide range of professional and institutional functions, cultures and traditions. In addition, they get acquainted with different approaches to the programming and curation of films, broadcast materials and media art objects in non-archival contexts. All courses are tailored specifically to this programme, and taught either partly or entirely in groups of no more than 16 participants.

In the second semester of their programme, students can choose from a number of elective courses. They are free to take any elective offered by the Graduate School of Humanities, but the Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image programme also offers its own, specialist course.

“This is Film! Film Heritage in Practice”, organised in collaboration with the Eye Filmmuseum and taught by its Head Curator (Prof. Giovanna Fossati), delves into current debates on film (heritage) preservation, digitization and presentation. Students consider a number of recent film heritage projects, present them to Eye’s audience and discuss them with the (international) experts responsible for them. In addition, they get involved in the preparation of Eye’ annual International Conference, in which they participate as part of their course work.

Another elective highly relevant to the programme is the “Digital Humanities” module, which will be offered from the academic year 2010-21 onwards.

In the second semester, students will also write their Master’s thesis. This thesis is the written report of a research project carried out under the supervision of an academic staff member connected to the programme. The thesis’ topic must be mutually agreed upon by the student and the academic adviser. Its subject is relevant to the field of media studies, and more specifically, the preservation and/or presentation of moving images and/or sound. The final text is between 17,000 and 23,000 words long.

In the second year of the programme, students engage in an extensive internship at an institution in the field of moving image archiving, preservation and/or presentation. The internship centres on a project the student carries out semi-independently, and under the supervision of a staff member at the host institution, along with one at the university. The project has a substantial research component. Examples of internship institutions, aside from the above-mentioned national programme partners, are Cinemathek/the Royal Belgian Film Archive (Brussels, Belgium), L’Immagine Ritrovata film laboratory (Bologna, Italy), or human rights video organisation Witness (New York, US). Internship positions are subject to availability, which changes from year to year.

Students enrolled in this programme may be eligible for an internship allowance during the second year of their studies. Please follow the link below for more information.

Enrolled students will have access to select screenings, conferences and/or other special events at the programme’s main partner institutions. Those same institutions also offer opportunities for participation in short-term extra-curricular projects (for example, the annual ‘Nitrate Control week’, in which students join forces with archival staff to assess the preservation state of the materials in Eye’s nitrate vaults) and part-time internships during the first year of study.

Students will also be invited to join the local Student Chapter of AMIA, the Association of Moving Image Archivists (the largest international professional association of its kind). The local chapter was set up in 2013 by a group of programme participants. They organise extracurricular events, promote the activities of AV archivists among fellow-students and liaise with professionals across the world.

Detailed course information

From the academic year of 2020-21 onwards, the programme will collaborate closely with the programme in Archival and Information Studies (also part of the dual Master’s in Media Studies cluster). For an impression of the new curriculum, please download the schematic course overview here: